The gay networking app Grindr has denounced a recent rash of “outings” of Olympic athletes currently competing in the Tokyo games.
Insider reports that a number of users on social media platforms such as Twitter and TikTok have used Grindr’s “explore” future to track down and identify profiles belonging to athletes currently staying in the city.
“I used Grindr’s explore feature to find myself and Olympian boyfriend,” one user wrote.
Users then screenshot the images and information on Grindr–some of which include athlete’s faces–and post the images to other social media platforms. Insider further reports that at least four athletes have been fully identified by face and name in the posts.
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Related: Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles drops out of team events at Tokyo Olympics
The posting of athlete information during the games raises important privacy concerns, as a number of the athletes have not come out publicly, and furthermore, come from nations where homosexuality remains criminalized or highly stigmatized. Yemen, Iran, and Saudi Arabia all have laws that prescribe harsh punishments–including death–to anyone convicted of homosexual activity. Russia also has harsh laws against gay conduct, while other nations, including Japan, continue to socially ostracize LGBTQ people.
Both Grindr and Twitter have issued harsh rebukes of the profile sharing.
“These individuals are in breach of Grindr’s Terms and Conditions of Service which prohibit them from publicly displaying, publishing, or otherwise distributing any content or information that are part of the Grindr services,” a spokesperson for Grindr said in a statement. “Out of respect for our users’ privacy, and out of respect for the contractual commitments these individuals made, Grindr demands that these individuals remove their social media posts that include images from the Grindr platform.”
Twitter echoed that sentiment, saying the postings “violated the Twitter Rules against hateful conduct and will need to be removed before the account owners can continue to use Twitter.”
The 2021 Tokyo Olympics features a record high of 168 openly queer athletes in competition. A number of those competitors have speculated that there is a significantly larger LGBTQ contingent in the games, though many of those athletes still feel uncomfortable with coming out in public.
Benny
What is wrong with todays LGBTQ youth?
They do shit like this without thinking. The older generation did not fight so hard and long for your rights so that you can mindlessly do stupid shit like this! Something as simple as not outing someone who you dont know is out or not completely escapes they train of thought SMH!
BigJohnSF
Their mindless self-absorption must be the queer part.
Bengali
Not just LGBT youth. The whole social media craze, especially by young people has given them carte blanche to do and way whatever they want…usually because of the payoff of lots of views and subscribers. it’s disgusting. Hopefully Twitter and Grindr can trace the outing messengers and close their accounts forever.
PerhapsYesNoMaybe
It doesn’t say LGBTQ youth are doing the outing. You don’t have to be LGBTQ to use and abuse Grindr – lots of straight trolls on it – male and female (pretending to be cis guys). Look at the crimes committed against Grindr users – it’s not often the perp is actually LGBTQ.
drelimanning
it seems that since these platforms are owned by China,that these horrible things occur. all people should respect one another’s priacy, it is human dignity and basic common sense and decency Dr R
jms42
I don’t think it’s “today’s” LGBTQIA+ youth, but rather often young, recently out LGBTQIA+ youth feel that their lives might have been easier/better if closeted famous people had come out to help make queer folks more mainstream. I felt that way in the late 80s. Now, older and hopefully a touch wiser, I am absolutely against outing folks. The most troubling is if Olympians from countries where you can be executed, jailed, fined, disowned, fired, and/or shamed are being outed, but nobody should have to face it.
jerkinns
TikTok and Grindr are both owned by China. Just saying.
QNetter
Just saying incorrect stuff. Grindr was bought by a US-based equity firm early in 2020.
TMBisAOK
Just saying what exactly. They are responsible for assholes outing people? Dont get your point.
jerkinns
QNetter, good to know! Thank you
rural queer socialist
China-based Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. bought Grindr in 2016 and had hopes of taking the company public in a large stock offering until the U.S. government intervened. Citing fears that the Chinese government could use personal data stored on the app to blackmail U.S. citizens, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States announced that it was forcing Kunlun to sell the company to American owners in March 2019. A year later, Kunlun reached a deal. A low-profile investment group, San Vicente Acquisitions, bought the company for $608 million.
SO DON’T BLAME CHINA OR YOUR QUEER FOLKS, OR ANYONE OTHER THAN
San Vicente Acquisitions who paid over SIX HUNDRED MILLION $ and haven’t invested in ethical technology to maintain privacy, restrict illegal and unethical conduct, and allow ‘trolling’, ‘outing’, ‘baiting’, ‘bullying’, ‘blackmailing’, ‘harassment’, and and other hateful and violence activity on Grndr.
If you’re actually interested, contact the corporation!
OH, and BTW, it is NOT an American corporation: it is German:
San Vicente Acquisition Partners is a SPV created to acquired Grindr based in
Erlangen, Bayern, Germany
mwolkiewicz
Either you’ve been consuming too much Fool-aid, QuackAnon conspiracy theories, watching too much FOX Propaganda, or a combination. They are not owned by China. They are owned by their own media company.
azjeff17
Shameful
buddhadude
I have never agree with outing someone. But recently I broke up with my bf because he was trying to cheat on Grindr. He’s rather nasty, so when he tried to do something to me I threatened to show his pictures to our friends. So here’s the thing. If you put YOUR pictures and info online – whether it’s Facebook, twitter, Grindr or wherever, you forfeit your privacy. I don’t care what Grindr’s policy is. If you don’t want to be exposed don’t put yourself out there.
TommyIL
@buddhadude so if you’re not out or want to stay private you need to just lurk in the shadows and not try to meet or engage with anyone online? Just because you use an app or website doesn’t mean you want–or deserve–the world to know your business. What would Buddha do? Maybe it was karma for your ex but every person using Grindr isn’t necessarily a lying cheat.
WashDrySpin
@Buddhadude
You are one seriously bitter ignorant self-absorbed QUEEN…no wonder your bf cheated on you…
TMBisAOK
Dude STFU! Of course people can find it but it takes a lot of work or just one asshole if you are famous. But you are basically blaming the victim and somehow relating it ty o your sordid life. Grow up! SMFH
Bosch
That’s really not very Buddha of you.
Hdtex
No wonder he left you. You sound like real low rent trash. He’s better off without you.
ShiningSex
On one side, don’t be on apps that can hurt you in ANY way.
On another, people who set out to harm others are idiots.
Being on grindr is kinda idiotic too.
Kangol2
I hear you but imagine you are a closeted gay athlete from a homophobic country (i.e., many competing in the Olympics). You are in the prime of your life, are competing or have competed, and want some sexual company. An app like Grindr exists to help you find others who might be interested. These athletes risk even more going to gay bars, or dance clubs, or anywhere where they might stand out. (Perhaps bathhouses might be another option.) So are they supposed to go without sex with another person for the duration of their time in Tokyo because they’re closeted/on the DL? The chief issue is that Grindr and other such apps could protect their privacy better, and not that they’re using the apps.
Fahd
Alas, Grinder would probably be a lot less interesting to a lot of people if the only people on Grinder were those who are out and comfortable about sharing their sexuality with everyone. Maybe these athletes can claim to have been hacked.
Twitter’s and Grinder’s harsh rebukes come off as lame – are they taking any “let’s do what we can to prevent this from happening in the future” steps? – although I don’t know what those might be. Who is responsible if a user violates the terms of services and causes injury to another user who has relied on those terms of service?
This reminds me of when that Hungarian BelAmi star was outed (even though BelAmi could not be accessed from Hungary – what a joke – someone just used a workaround to access from another country and outed him). He lost his job and was run out of town. I can see a lot of hurt for those athletes who live in backward countries. How will they be protected/compensated and who will do it?
Cam
Free speech! See something, say something! Mission accomplished!
Prowelsh56
well there you go! LGBTQ has just as many idiots and egocentrics as any other section of the population. The community has a fair share of morons.
ScottOnEarth
What’s an “explore future”? Edit, David Reddish, edit!
TomG
NO ONE and I mean absolutely NO ONE has the right to out anyone else. That’s a personal choice for each individual to make when they think it’s right for them. And kids need to understand that. How would they feel if someone did the same to them? I guess parents never teach kids the golden rule anymore aka “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It’s such an easy concept that if everyone did that we would be a better world.
Joshua333
As a young person, I despise “straight”/”only mmf” people on Grindr. They get what they get and I don’t feel sorry for them.
usfcab
Unfortunately, the younger lgbtqia learned this from their elders, like when groups like “Act Up,” would out closeted men and when gay men who saw gay and bi politicians, on dating apps or sex sites and would blackmail them, threaten to, or out them because of their political, legislative or homophobic viewpoints went against the lgbtqia community.
Joshooeerr
If you post photos on Grindr, it’s pretty much like walking down the street wearing a T-shirt saying “I’m on Grindr”. It’s virtually a public forum. Anyone can join, anyone can see your profile pix, and if you share “private” pix you usually don’t know who it’s with and you have no guarantee that they will not be copied or shared. There have also been numerous data breaches associated with Grindr that have been well publicised. Any reasonably intelligent person using Grindr would have to be aware that they are pretty much outing themselves by using the app. So the outrage here somewhat mystifies me.
wikidBSTN
Exactly – well said
wikidBSTN
They are on Grindr and they expect privacy???? Really?
cuteguy
I understand the outrage bc no one has a right to out anyone but seriously? Why are these athletes from discriminating countries showing their faces on their profile?
andrew.agee
I see people here jumping to the assumption that it’s gay users of these apps that are the problem. Maybe?
But first and foremost, Grindr is to blame. They’ve been hacked multiple times, exposing millions of user’s geo-location data. Data so accurate that someone exploiting the flaw would be able to tell if you were using Grindr in the bathtub or on the couch.
While their programmers can cook up algorithms to place ads, and harvest huge amounts of data to pimp you to advertisers, amazingly they can’t figure out how to cure their massive spam bot problem. They simply don’t care about users.
Scruff updated their app 6 months ago to brick “screen grabs,” which would have FIXED this problem. With no monitoring, unless you cross some “woke” line, users are free to wreak havoc far and wide.
Users bear some responsibility for this, true. What kind of IDIOT would hook up, in the middle of of a *pandemic*, at an event with world-wide focus, on an app everyone from the Taliban to your Mom has access to?
I quite doubt the posters are bored little gay boys playing around on their phones. It’s much more likely to be bad actors with a very specific agenda.
Brewster69
So both Grindr and Twitter have demanded that the individuals remove their comments. Why aren’t they doing it themselves instead of relying on the persons involved to do it?
BaltoSteve
There is a lot to unpack here.
First, the concept of involuntary outing of prominent individuals in a given arena; be it athletic, entertainment, political, etc; sure is a slippery slope to navigate. I always noticed that it was unspoken that it was a no-no Unless to highlight the hypocrisy of a given individual, (ie Aaron Schock, etc), and that person’s actions in regards to his/hers/their sexual identity and the community that identity falls into. That involuntary outing was a tool to be used sparingly and only where the benefit to the LGBTQ+ community considerably outweighs the damage it does to the individual. For my fellow sci-fi nerds in here, “The Needs of the Many outweigh the Needs of the Few or the One.” There are plenty of OUT athletes at the Olympics this year, so I can’t see where it benefits the Many or Few. Looks like plain old garden variety cyber bullying and cyber stalking.
The second is the Role of Grindr in this fiasco. In the recent past, yes they have had data breachs, much like many other corporations, governments, and private individuals. However, that has absolutely nothing to do with this/these individual(s) taking screen shots. Nor does Scruff implementing their way of stopping screen grabs. Off the top of my head, you are dealing with portable technology. If you want to Out someone on Scruff, load it on a tablet and then take pics of the tablet using another device. Now post those pics and mission accomplished. And let’s be honest here, Scruff didn’t make that coding change to stop people getting outed or even stalking, it was made in an effort to try and curb fake profiles used in identity theft schemes.
Which brings us to the alleged culpability of the athletes themselves. Come on people. What did the athletes do to invite folks to out them? Post a profile on an app that many thousands use on the daily to meet up? Have it running during a pandemic, as thousands are doing right at this moment? The answer is they didn’t do anything wrong. They don’t deserve to be outed and they don’t deserve to be blamed for doing the exact same things their non-Olympian or even st8t counter parts are doing (getting a little physical release).
Any and all blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the people doing the outing. Those folks should be brought to light and tried under the relevant laws. And since Grindr’s corporate headquarters is in Hollywood, a case could be made for that to happen in California.